I have been suspended on full pay due to allegations of

Customer Question

I have been suspended...

I have been suspended on full pay due to allegations of gross misconduct. The allegation is after 7 months in the job they have tried to verify one of my references and have evidence that one of the title of my referee was incorrect. That I had intentionally tried to falsify and mislead them although all the references have provided the same content about me for last 10 years of my employment. The title i provided was operations director inplace of operations manager for one of the references. My current employer before i was offered the role has vetted all my previous companies going direct to HR and confirming all my roles. Due to one of my xboss probably bad mouthing my current employer, they have written to HR again to verify one of my referees. I had an investigation meeting where no statement of mine was recorded, now even after explaining the reason i had put the title wrong by error and having a great record in my current employee, they want to proceed to disciplinary hearing and by the allegation they have raised it looks like they want to go for summary dismisal based on i tried to mislead them. When highlighted that the content of all the references were correct and there was no discrepancy they ignored it and didnt want to consider this. I am so stressed that i have had to get a GP certificate to be off from work. they want me to come to disciplinary hearing with no documents of evidence provided, no statements taken from me. Do i have a case of unfair dismisal or can i request a settlement to end the matter and voluntarily resign and move on wit my career

Lawyer's Assistant: Because employment law varies from place to place, can you tell me what state this is in?

UK

Lawyer's Assistant: Is the employment agreement "at will," union, full time or part time?

Full time

Lawyer's Assistant: Anything else you want the lawyer to know before I connect you?

I want a settlemnent agreement to avoid hearing, appeals, tribunals and unions

What official reason has your employer provided for suspending you exactly?

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Customer reply replied 12 months ago

gross misconduct allegation that i provided a false and misleading reference. The only thing that was an error was the title of the referee I had put was Operations Director and she was an Operations Manager

OK, thank you for your response. Leave it with me for now and I will review the relevant information and laws and get back to you at the earliest opportunity. There is no need to wait here as you will receive an email when I have responded. Also, please do not respond to this message as it will just push your question to the back of the queue and you may experience unnecessary delays. Thank you.

Many thanks for your patience. The problem for you in this situation is that if you have been continuously employed at your place of work for less than 2 years then your employment rights will unfortunately be somewhat limited. Most importantly, you will not be protected against unfair dismissal. This means that your employer can dismiss you for more or less any reason, and without following a fair procedure, as long as their decision is not based on a reason which makes a dismissal automatically unfair. These include:

In the event that the reason for dismissal fell within any of these categories, the dismissal could be automatically unfair and there could also be a potential discrimination claim.

However, if the dismissal had nothing to do with any of the above exceptions then you would not be able to challenge it. In that case your only protection would be if you were dismissed in breach of contract. That could happen if you were not paid your contractual notice period (unless you were dismissed for gross misconduct). If you did not have a written contract in place you would be entitled to the minimum statutory notice period of 1 week. Your employer would either have to allow you to work that notice period and pay you as normal, or they will have to pay you in lieu of notice.

So the best you can hope for legally is your notice period and any accrued holidays. They can dismiss you without you being able to challenge it, but you can challenge a decision not to pay your notice if they try and rely on gross misconduct without the necessary evidence. So if you are to negotiate an exit, it may be best to approach them with a realistic offer, such as to be allowed to walk away without a dismissal hanging over your head and to be paid your notice period and to leave it at that.

I trust this has answered your query. Please take a second to leave a positive rating by selecting 3, 4 or 5 stars above - this is an important part of our process and recognises the time I have spent assisting you. If you still need me to clarify anything else, please reply on here and I will assist as best as I can. Thank you

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DISCLAIMER: Answers from Experts on JustAnswer are not substitutes for the advice of an attorney. JustAnswer is a public forum and questions and responses are not private or confidential or protected by the attorney-client privilege. The Expert above is not your attorney, and the response above is not legal advice. You should not read this response to propose specific action or address specific circumstances, but only to give you a sense of general principles of law that might affect the situation you describe. Application of these general principles to particular circumstances must be done by a lawyer who has spoken with you in confidence, learned all relevant information, and explored various options. Before acting on these general principles, you should hire a lawyer licensed to practice law in the jurisdiction to which your question pertains.

The responses above are from individual Experts, not JustAnswer. The site and services are provided “as is”. To view the verified credential of an Expert, click on the “Verified” symbol in the Expert’s profile. This site is not for emergency questions which should be directed immediately by telephone or in-person to qualified professionals. Please carefully read the Terms of Service (last updated February 8, 2012).